Reflections from the LocalGovDigital Yorkshire & the Humber Peer Group meet

Karolis Duoba
May 9
2 min read

Back Together: Digital, Data & AI

After a three-year pause, it was fantastic to see the LocalGovDigital Yorkshire & the Humber Peer Group meet in person again. Hosted in Leeds, the day brought together digital, service transformation, and customer experience leads from councils across the region—sharing what’s working, what’s not, and where AI might fit in.

💡 Innovation Highlights from Councils

Bradford Council – Exploring voice automation and web-based chatbots to extend customer self-service.
Calderdale Council – “Low cost, high impact” transformation: in-house rebuild of appointment booking, delivering smarter outcomes without external spend.
East Riding Council – Measuring the social value of public Wi-Fi using the Social Value Engine. Every £1 invested delivers £2.43 in social and economic return.
Barnsley Council – Scaling Microsoft Power Platform for service delivery, and testing generative AI—with cautious optimism.
North Yorkshire Council – Facing the challenge of mapping over 1,000 services for 600,000 people, using RPA and service design to streamline delivery.

🤖 AI: Opportunity Meets Caution

Leeds City Council shared their measured approach to AI, highlighting the gap between fast-moving tech and council culture.

Their learnings:

Culture change is essential: councils need time and space to adopt AI confidently.
“We need to get the right toolsets to the right people.”
Hosting a two-day hackathon already helped accelerate uptake.

📊 GovMetric Session: Complaints—The Only Metric That Matters?

We asked attendees to consider: Are you being reactive or preventative when it comes to citizen experience?

Key takeaways from our session:

💥 Complaints are the pressure point—solve them first.
🔁 Pair complaint management with continuous feedback to uncover systemic issues.
🧠 AI tools like Octavia (complaints) and CX Insights (feedback) support this dual approach - efficient now, insightful over time.

⚠️ Risk & Mitigation Workshop: Your Views on AI in Public Services

We facilitated a session to explore AI risks and how to mitigate them. You told us:

Top Risks Identified:

❗ Governance & Communication – risk of poor transparency and stakeholder mistrust.
❓ Lack of clarity – what counts as AI vs. automation?
🔐 Security & Bias – ethical concerns and data protection fears.
🤔 Trust & Engagement – AI hesitancy among staff and the public.
⚙️ Operational Pressures – temptation to move fast without long-term planning.

Key Mitigation Ideas:

✅ Build governance frameworks early.
🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Involve staff and users to build buy-in.
🔍 Define AI clearly and educate internally.
🧩 Balance automation with human oversight.

This event showed a strong appetite for change - but also a shared understanding that progress must be purposeful, inclusive and ethical.

Thanks to all who joined. Let’s keep the conversation (and collaboration) going.

If you would like to discover some of our Customer Stories, highlighting real-world customer

experience transformations within the public sector, click below.